May 7, 2004

Myanmar Lifts Ban On Poultry Imports From Malaysia, India
 

Myanmar's military government has lifted a ban on poultry imports from Malaysia and India, which were unaffected by the deadly bird flu outbreak earlier this year, a livestock official said Friday.

Authorities have allowed local farms to import live chickens for breeding from the two countries since April 27, said Dr. Than Tun, director of the Livestock Breeding and Veterinary Department. However a ban remains on import of birds from avian flu-hit Thailand and Indonesia, he said.

The import ban was partially relaxed to allow local farms to replenish their dwindling stocks of young chicks, which has sent the price of chicken meat upward by about 50% in recent months.

Bird flu swept through 10 Asian nations earlier this year, killing or forcing authorities to cull more than 100 million birds. The disease also jumped to people, killing 16 people in Vietnam and eight in Thailand.

Myanmar's poultry stocks were declared free of the virus, but authorities imposed a temporary ban on chicken imports from neighboring Thailand to guard against the spread of the disease. Since the outbreak, Myanmar's poultry industry has suffered heavy losses.

Officials are thoroughly inspecting imported broiler chickens - bred for their meat rather than eggs - and will continue to monitor the birds at poultry farms where they are kept for at least 21 days to ensure they are healthy, Than Tun said.

Some 11,000 chickens have been imported from Malaysia since April 27, he said. Import figures for India weren't immediately available.